Normally I avoid playing armchair psychologist— I don’t even own an armchair, let alone any significant psychological training. However, I experience anxiety comorbidly with a broader condition I didn’t recognize until 40, and your cycle feels quite familiar. If it is anxiety, a therapist could likely help you implement some CBT exercises to quickly, drastically, and permanently address the symptoms, without drugs, in a finite number of sessions. Most of these common psychological maladies have online questionnaires that could give you a better sense. Just, you know, don’t do them right before bed:-) Good luck and apologies if the suggestion was presumptuous.
Echoing this, the GP comment was very familiar. I suffer from insomnia related to a mood disorder, and had tried the app approach. What worked best was some time with a psychologist using CBT & DBT methods. Note that DBT likely is only useful in certain circumstances, but CBT strategies will be useful to nearly everyone, and especially align with the type of person who reads this site.
I'd always poo-poohed counseling, but finding a good counselor who could offer more than a sympathetic ear was key. There are definitely great counselors, and a PhD isn't required, but I would recommend seeking out a psychologist. Especially if you are motivated and want to be involved with your therapy, a psychologist has the training and background to be exceedingly helpful. Note that this will cost more, but in my experience it is worth it.
Also note that you don't need to be crazy or suffering from any mental disorder for them to be helpful. Think of it as the same as employing a business strategy consultant. They are there to help you develop more beneficial strategies for thinking and reacting to your daily life, and sleep is just one factor. It sounds trite, but developing different ways of thinking and reacting to problems is huge. Unfortunately, there aren't one-size solutions, so what worked for me likely isn't helpful advice. But for the average reader of this site, seeking out a psychologist vs a regular counselor is money well spent.
Thanks for chiming in. I find counselling useful, but not everybody does!
I enlisted the help of a psychologist advertising quick symptom-relief with his published set of CBT tools without first needing a protracted psychological deep dive. Avoiding imminent, life-altering consequences required fast results. I reckoned we could address less cut-and-dried matters down the line and gave it a shot. The tools worked, but I needed more connection. Our session began by quantifying the efficacy of parts of an exercise with 1-10 scales and a/b comparisons, and ended with him walking me through a tweaked version of an exercise and emailing me a copy in a word document. Exchanges not directly advancing that process frustrated him. A two-sentence response to “how are you doing?” felt inappropriate, like explaining the impact of unreliable transportation on your life to a busy auto mechanic expecting terse, actionable bullet points. He’d almost certainly have preferred a 1-10 answer. He was pretty upfront about it when we started, but I expected less of a departure.
That said, he’d have been perfect for my father— a lovely and very type-A retired engineer. At my mom’s behest, he gave therapy a shot with a trusted family counselor they’d previously used for family therapy. He truly gave it his type-A best, but couldn’t open up. The counselor essentially said that so many years of psychological self-policing rendered talk therapy too difficult to pursue barring a mental health crisis.
